You are
the buyer.
Three of you are playing the same role on three different teams. Your job is to surface what a real procurement decision-maker would say out loud. The reason this role goes to a VP and not to a junior analyst is the power dynamic — the team needs to feel the buyer's skepticism in the room, and they need to feel it from someone whose seniority makes the pressure real. Your pre-flight is mostly about mindset. Walk in sharp.
Four items. None take more than 30 minutes. All four matter.
- 01
Read the spec from a buyer's seat
Not from a consultant's seat. Pretend you're the procurement decision-maker reading this. What's missing? What's overpromised? What would you push back on if you were writing the check?
- 02
Draft 5-10 questions you would ask if you were really paying for this
Bring them on a notes page. Use them in Discovery and again during Build Sprint 1. The team should hear at least three of them before lunch.
- 03
Internalize the 'sharp, not polite' framing
Polite Client Advocates are useless to their teams. Your job is to surface what a real buyer would say out loud — including the uncomfortable parts. The team wants you to push hard, even if their faces don't show it. Especially if their faces don't show it.
- 04
Acknowledge recording consent
Every working session is recorded. The questions you ask in Discovery become reference material the team can paste back into Claude. Show up knowing this.
Your authority is real, even though you're not the team's boss.
The power dynamic of "the VP isn't satisfied" lands harder than the same words from anyone else on the team. Use it. The team needs the pressure — they will not get it from each other.
You are the team's last line of defense against tech-demo aesthetics.
The Builder will want to show off cool things. The Narrator will want to make a smooth pitch. You are the one who asks "would a buyer actually trust this?" — and you ask it loudly enough that the answer matters.
Validate citations, not just claims.
If the Market Analyst says "the average enterprise spends $X on this," you ask where the number came from. If the Pricing Strategist says "comparable tools charge $Y," you ask which tools. The buyer at the demo will ask. You are that buyer in rehearsal.
The characteristic mistakes. Read them so you can notice yourself making one on the day and correct in real time.
Being polite
Polite Client Advocates are decoration. Your job is the pressure a real procurement decision-maker would create, not the encouragement a teammate would offer. The team wants you to push hard, even if their faces don't show it — especially if their faces don't show it.
Staying quiet during Discovery
Your value is highest when scope is still soft and cheap to reshape. If you only start pushing back during Sprint 2, scope is already expensive to change and you're just criticizing. Open your mouth in the first 60 minutes.
Validating citations lazily
"That sounds right" is not validation. "Where did that number come from and can you show me?" is. Every comp the Market Analyst surfaces, every number the Pricing Strategist anchors to — a real buyer would push on those. You are the rehearsal.
Breaking character to offer your own opinion
You are playing the buyer, not being yourself. Stay in the buyer's seat. When the team wants the VP's advice, they can ask for it directly outside the Client Advocate role — but during Discovery and the sprints, you are the buyer and nothing else.
Every working session on April 17 is recorded. By attending Build Day you're acknowledging this. The transcripts become first-class context for the firm's LLM tooling. Your sharp buyer questions in Discovery are exactly the kind of material that's most valuable to capture.